There is a pattern in this category. An app launches with one sharp idea, it works, it grows, and four years later it has sleep tracking, a sound library, a breathing exercise, a subscription bundle and an onboarding quiz that asks about your goals before it will let you set an alarm. Every individual addition was defensible. The result is a 230 MB application whose original job was to make a noise at 6:30.
If that is not what you want, your options are narrower than the App Store makes it look.
What “simple” should mean
Not featureless. An alarm that is trivially dismissed is simple and useless. The right test is whether every feature serves the moment you wake up:
- Earns its place: the alarm ringing reliably, making dismissal require getting up, checking you stayed up, a backup alarm.
- Does not: sleep stage graphs, snore recording, soundscapes, meditations, AI coaching, streak leaderboards, social features, a quiz before your first alarm.
The second list is not worthless. Plenty of people genuinely want sleep tracking, and Sleep Cycle does it well. It is just a different product from an alarm, sold in the same aisle.
Size and scope, compared
| App | Size | Sleep tracking | Sound library | Get-out-of-bed mission |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Clock | Built into iOS | Sleep Focus only | System tones | None |
| Mornio | Small, alarm only | None | 14 alarm sounds, or your own | QR / barcode scan, plus 4 others |
| Alarm Scan | 68 MB | None | None stated | Barcode / QR scan |
| Sleep Cycle | 27 MB | Extensive | Stories, soundscapes, meditations | None |
| Erly | 233 MB | None stated | Not stated | Missions |
| Alarmy | 233 MB | Yes | Calm sleep sounds | Many mission types |
Sizes are as reported on each App Store listing and change with each release. Size is a rough proxy for scope, not a measure of quality. Sleep Cycle packs a great deal into 27 MB.
Apple Clock
Best for: anyone whose alarm currently works and who just wants it to work slightly better.
It is already installed, it rings through Silent mode and Focus, it survives restarts, and it collects nothing. In iOS 26 you can set the snooze duration per alarm from 1 to 15 minutes, which is the single most useful alarm change Apple has made in years. A one-minute snooze removes most of the temptation without removing the button.
Pair that with putting the phone across the room and you have a genuinely decent setup for free. The only thing it cannot do is verify that you got up, or check on you afterwards.
Mornio
Best for: people who need a real mission and a follow-up check, but do not want a sleep platform attached.
Mornio does not track your sleep, has no sleep sounds or meditations, and has no social feed. It is one flow: the alarm rings, you finish your mission to dismiss it (scan your registered code, by default), it can check again a few minutes later, and it restarts if you do not respond.
We would rather be straight about how that has changed. Earlier versions used only the system alarm tone, because custom sounds stopped after a few seconds in our testing. Version 1.0.14 plays sounds differently (in our test, a custom sound kept looping for over a minute on a locked iPhone), so it now has 14 alarm sounds and lets you add your own. It also added four more missions, a morning streak and a guided setup that asks a few questions before your first alarm. That is more than this page used to describe, so weigh it against the list above.
Strengths
- One flow, with scan-to-dismiss as the default mission
- No sleep tracking, no sleep sounds, no social feed
- No account, no ads, nothing under Data Used to Track You
- Still has the features that matter at 6:30: mission, follow-up check, backup alarm, honest history
Limitations
- iOS 26.1 and iPhone only
- If you do want sleep tracking or sleep sounds, this is the wrong app. Buy Sleep Cycle or Alarmy
- A guided setup with a few questions before your first alarm
- Five mission types, far fewer than Alarmy
Alarm Scan: Barcode Wake Up
Narrow in scope (a scan mission and backup alarms) with a clean privacy label listing only Usage Data and Diagnostics, not linked to you. It is ad-supported, with a $1.49 monthly purchase to remove ads, and it had a single rating when we checked. Lean, but unproven; test it before a morning that matters.
When the big apps are the right answer
We are not making the case that feature-rich is bad. It is bad for a specific person, the one who wants an alarm and nothing else. Plenty of people are not that person:
- You want to understand your sleep, not just survive the morning. Sleep Cycle is genuinely good at this: sleep stage tracking, snore detection, a wake window that tries to catch you in lighter sleep, plus sounds and coaching. Mornio does none of it and never will.
- You want to choose between mission types. Alarmy’s range (maths, memory, shaking, squats, Photo Mission, QR, voice) is unmatched, and its roughly 240,000 US ratings at 4.8 stars reflect a decade of refinement.
- Streaks motivate you. Erly is built around that, and it works for people who respond to it.
- You are on an older iPhone. This one is decisive. Alarmy runs on iOS 17, Erly on 17.6, Nuj on 15. Mornio needs 26.1. If your phone cannot run it, simplicity is not the deciding factor, availability is.
A quick way to decide
- Does your current alarm wake you at all? If no, that is a reliability problem. Check volume, charge, and whether the app really rings on silent. Start with Apple Clock.
- Does it wake you, but you turn it off and stay in bed? You need a mission. Mornio, Alarmy or Nuj.
- Do you get up, then go back to bed? You need a follow-up check. This is the narrowest requirement and the one fewest apps meet.
- Do you also want to know how you slept? Then you want a sleep app as well, and Sleep Cycle is the specialist.
Most people who think they need a better alarm actually need step 2 or 3. Almost nobody needs a soundscape library to solve it.